George Allen and his friends from the White Citizens Council

George Allen did not have to be a racist, he chose to be a racist. He is pictured with the people with whom he feels an afinity and wanted to fit in.

Only a decade ago, as governor of Virginia, Allen personally initiated an association with the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), the successor organization to the segregationist White Citizens Council.

This is recent history, not some foible dredged up from Allen’s school days, although there are some racist “foibles” there as well.

While he was Governor of Virginia he approved the shut-down of the Virginia Council on Day Care because his friends at the CCC were angry with the Council for preparing an “anti-bias” curriculum for daycare teachers. A CCC member complained to Allen that the Council was attempting to “form the minds of our young children with a radical ideology before they enter public schools.” Note that he calls anti-bias a radical ideology.

In 2000, he had hung a noose at his law office. When that fact was reported, he claimed it had “nothing to do with lynching.” When it was reported that he also hung large Confederate flags in his house, he explained they were part of his flag collection. Allen had also opposed the 1991 Civil Rights Act and making Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a holiday.

A noose in a law office in a US southern state is ALWAYS about lynching.